Spanish and Ukrainian authorities dismantled a criminal ring that exploited war-displaced Ukrainian women to open bank accounts and launder nearly €4.75 million through automated low-odds bets on online gambling platforms using stolen identities. Spanish police arrested 12 suspects after a joint probe with Ukrainian authorities, seizing devices, bots, vehicles, SIM cards, freezing properties and blocking accounts across multiple countries. #SpanishNationalPolice #Europol
Keypoints
- Criminal network recruited vulnerable, war-displaced Ukrainian women and financed their travel to Spain.
- Victims were forced to open bank accounts and credit cards that the suspects immediately controlled.
- Stolen identities from more than 5,000 people across 17 nationalities were used to place automated low-odds bets via bots.
- The scheme laundered an estimated €4,750,000 through online gambling platforms while minimizing detection risk.
- Joint Spanish-Ukrainian investigations led to 12 arrests, multiple searches, seizures of devices and assets, and frozen accounts and properties.